I'm trying, I'm trying! Just finished having the run around with HobbyKing as I received the older V8R4, not the newer V8R4-II with my last order (even though I ordered the, as listed, V8R4-II). I've asked them if the stock they have is now the new products, but they haven't responded yet.

I could order from a local supplier however they are £13.14 each (+ £2.50 shipping), where as HobbyKing is £8.6587 each (+ £2.50 shipping).

Don't really want to order from the US (i.e. Aloft Hobbies), as I'll get stung on customs really badly - £8 admin fee, plus 20% tax.

Or Hi-Model is ~£10 each + £4 shipping.

So I wanted to exhaust the HobbyKing option before going somewhere else - however they are avoiding actually answering the question I asked (and coming back with a completely different response) in the support ticket system! Grrr....

Cheers,
Si.

Simon,

Aloft Hobbies would be happy to send you a couple for free if that will help you out. We ship fast, you will probably have them in a week or so. Send me a PM and we will figure things out.

I do think about removing the case of the 8 channel to save weight / space (put shrink tube around it)

IIRC, I believe the V8R7-II is just that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rotozuk

Any chance you can use the D8R4-II instead of the V8R4-II? Or does the telemetry stuff on that unit not play well?

I ask as they are more or less the same size, but the D8R4-II is a full range receiver and offers dual plug in antennas.

-Wayne

The D-series (mostly ARM powered now) use a different processor to the V-series (8051), so it would require a code port to get working. Unfortunately recently I haven't had time to do this, as it requires quite a lot of work and I'm working on another exciting RC project at the moment. However on the plus side, once I get this done, then full telemetry on Hitec is possible!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rotozuk

Simon,

Aloft Hobbies would be happy to send you a couple for free if that will help you out. We ship fast, you will probably have them in a week or so. Send me a PM and we will figure things out.

-Wayne

Cheers for the offer! Don't worry though now, I've just received a bunch from the other large FrSky supplier about. I would have loved to ordered some from you, however for some strange reason, UK Customs almost always slaps a large Customs Duty on stuff coming from the USA - but not from China/Hong Kong...

I've got them programmed, but not got around to testing them - the weather on our small island has been, erm well, very wet! Currently our clubs several different patches are only good for ducks...

I don't imagine there will be any trouble with it working. As all it is, is the V8R-II firmware flashed onto the V8R4-II - as the pinout between them are mostly the same. So in theory it should be no different to a V8R-II receiver. However I don't like to give the green light to anything that I haven't given a good flight test too.

I've got them programmed, but not got around to testing them - the weather on our small island has been, erm well, very wet! Currently our clubs several different patches are only good for ducks...

I don't imagine there will be any trouble with it working. As all it is, is the V8R-II firmware flashed onto the V8R4-II - as the pinout between them are mostly the same. So in theory it should be no different to a V8R-II receiver. However I don't like to give the green light to anything that I haven't given a good flight test too.

Cheers,
Si.

Si, I have no idea on how many you have at the moment, and if you are going to sell a batch on ebay as you did before.. It will probably take some weeks if not months before they hit the shelves, I'll be happy to buy one or two from your hands if you have any leftovers!

I'm working on using the little 5ch in PPM out mode as a wireless link to the RealFlight sim.

I seem to have everything working, including pulling 5v from the USB to power the RX (required a lead inside the interlink). Unfortunately, it seems like RealFlight isn't recognizing any additional controllers in software.

I would guess that this may be some difference between the PPM format that is output by the RX in PPM mode, and what the interlink is expecting.

I can't find docs on any of this, however. Can you specify the PPM format that comes out of this RX? I'll see if I can't dig up specs for what the interlink is looking for, or will try to figure out how to use a scope to take a look at what is coming out of the trainer port on my A9... (advice there would be useful as well).

I'm working on using the little 5ch in PPM out mode as a wireless link to the RealFlight sim.

I seem to have everything working, including pulling 5v from the USB to power the RX (required a lead inside the interlink). Unfortunately, it seems like RealFlight isn't recognizing any additional controllers in software.

I would guess that this may be some difference between the PPM format that is output by the RX in PPM mode, and what the interlink is expecting.

I can't find docs on any of this, however. Can you specify the PPM format that comes out of this RX? I'll see if I can't dig up specs for what the interlink is looking for, or will try to figure out how to use a scope to take a look at what is coming out of the trainer port on my A9... (advice there would be useful as well).

Thanks!

Hi jtaylor,

I'm out of the office at the moment, so I'm fairly limited in what I can check, however off the top of my head I remember the following:
- All 9 channels are outputted.
- Each PPM pulse is 0.5ms long. I think the A9 is 0.4ms and Futaba is 0.5ms.
- The blank end period is always a minimum of 4.2ms.
- Complete frame minimum is 22.5ms. If the 9 channels combined, with the blank period is greater than this, then the complete frame will stretch, so as not to violate the 4.2ms minimum.

This is how I soldered it into a cheap Chinese dongle (I wanted to keep my original Realflight 5 and Phoenix dongles in resalable condition if I ever wanted to sell them):

If you need any more info, let me know and I'll try and get it when I get back.

Can you help me out on this one (I know it came around but I cant seem to find the link).

My Minima (5 ch) initializes normal with some ESC's with BEC, but with others I have a flashing green light, The only way around it is to remove them a couple of times were the BEC goes in to (channel 3). After a few attempts I get a firm red light like nothing ever happened. It's a bit of a fuzz this way for an otherwise brilliant design and a sort of a gamble on which ESC's will work or not. It seems with removing the plug couple of times it gives a short burst, just enough for the Rx to start up.

It must need a minimum amount of voltage to start up, is that it? I have no Idea of the voltage output of the ESC's that give me the flashing green light. The "official" minimas don't bother at all what the voltage is. They start up when power is provided no mather what ESC it is.

A voltage booster (5V) could do the trick (I have some for my FPV gear but they come at a whopping 15 Euro)

I'm working on using the little 5ch in PPM out mode as a wireless link to the RealFlight sim.

I seem to have everything working, including pulling 5v from the USB to power the RX (required a lead inside the interlink). Unfortunately, it seems like RealFlight isn't recognizing any additional controllers in software.

I would guess that this may be some difference between the PPM format that is output by the RX in PPM mode, and what the interlink is expecting.

I can't find docs on any of this, however. Can you specify the PPM format that comes out of this RX? I'll see if I can't dig up specs for what the interlink is looking for, or will try to figure out how to use a scope to take a look at what is coming out of the trainer port on my A9... (advice there would be useful as well).

Thanks!

Wondering what trips the interlink into recognizing that a tx is there. I tried a no mod method quick. I made a micro connector to normal servo and used that to connect to the lead that came with the hpp22 and then connected that to the buddy box cable that came with the interlink and then just powered the rx with a battery. Same thing, doesn't see a tx. I seem to remember Simon saying once that's it's the same PPM that the Hitec puts out the only modification is it's inverted? Or maybe just that it's inverted compared to Futaba. Something like that.

My A9 works (or did before the trainer port went flaky) with the interlink cable that comes with RealFlight. I would assume the rx outputs the same ppm as the TX. Is there a way to invert the ppm out of the tx?

The futaba pinout has nothing to do with the interlink side. I discovered this by taking the interlink cable apart. Pin 2 is ground, but ppm goes into pin 6 (not 3). I'm running power from USB to pin 1.

I fixed all that, but then the RX would keep going into bind mode. What's up with that.

Then my laptop hard drive promptly failed. Now I'm royally F'd. It'll be a while before I can even tell if this stuff will work...

The futaba pinout has nothing to do with the interlink side. I discovered this by taking the interlink cable apart. Pin 2 is ground, but ppm goes into pin 6 (not 3). I'm running power from USB to pin 1.

I fixed all that, but then the RX would keep going into bind mode. What's up with that.

Then my laptop hard drive promptly failed. Now I'm royally F'd. It'll be a while before I can even tell if this stuff will work...

Unfortunately an issue that never came up in testing is that there a slight bug with the way the bind cable is handled. The way it detects which port the bind plug is connected to, is by toggling the ch5 port up and down and seeing which pin responds. However for some reason, I got a code definition wrong and it toggles the pin with a 1 every time - i.e. it doesn't toggle.

For the vast majority of the time this isn't a problem. However some ESCs (and sim interfaces) have a very strong pull-up resistor on their servo signal pin. So this causes the receiver channel to be pulled up - and thus the receiver is tricked into thinking that the bind cable is attached there. This issue has been fixed in the latest releases, but I think there are a couple of the old stock filtering through.

There are a couple of effective workarounds if you are seeing this problem. If its an ESC causing the problem on channel 3, there are two things that can be done. The first is that if your using an Aurora 9, you can reconfigure the ESC channel to channel 5 on the receiver - this is the easiest way.

Alternatively (and if you don't have an A9 or you are connecting channel 1 to a simulator input), you could put a stronger pull-down resistor (like 1k) across the top and bottom pins of the servo lead (i.e. the Servo signal wire and the Negative). This will pull the pin down enough so the receiver isn't fooled.

This issue is mainly with the 5 channel micro receiver. The 8 channel receiver only has a problems when you push and hold the bind button on power-up and use a ESC with a strong pull-up. To overcome this on the 8 channel, either plug the ESC cable to channel 1-2,4,6-8 or simply use a standard Rx pack when binding the receiver. It is usually recommend by most manufacturers to bind all receivers out of the aircraft anyway.

I can't remember if its documented in this thread, but this should be already detailed on the product discussion areas. I'm very sorry for this happening. Hopefully by now most of the new receivers sold should have it resolved. If you can't overcome it with the above, I'm happy to receive and reprogram any receivers that you have with the fix. All I ask is that you pay the cost to post it back to you (current postal rates here - £0.90 uk, £2.70 europe, £3.30 rest of the world). I would love to offer this as a free service, but I simply don't make enough money out of these to be able to afford to!

It's a bit of a bummer, but unfortunately there isn't a lot that can be done with the units already shipped. However there is a effective workaround, so people shouldn't be too put out by the issue.